This invention relates to an improved apparatus for producing artificial snow which can generate artificially a predetermined quantity of snow having a predetermined quality and cause it to fall like natural snow for use in various studies and experiments.
One type of prior art artificial snow producing apparatuses freezes fine mist-like water droplets to generate ice particles, and another apparatus which generates snow identical to natural snow is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Application No. 165,566/1986, and in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 920,194 filed Oct. 17, 1986.
The prior art apparatus of the Japanese Laid-Open Application will be described with reference to FIG. 4 of the accompanying drawings. The snow producing apparatus comprises an erect cooling tower 4, a snow collecting chamber 1 which is connected to the bottom of the cooling tower 4 and the opening 3 in the ceiling portion of which is covered by the cooling tower 4, a first cooler 9 for cooling the air inside the cooling tower 4, an inner cylinder 12 which extends vertically inside the cooling tower 4 and has a bottom opening connected to the opening 3 of the snow collecting chamber 1, a circulation pipe 13 which connects the top of the inner cylinder 12 to its lower end portion, a variable speed blower 14 disposed at an intermediate portion of the circulation pipe 13, a humidifier 15 which supplies moisture into the inner cylinder 12 near the lower end portion of the inner cylinder 12, and a snow seed feeder which supplies ice crystals into the inner cylinder near the humidifier 15.
However, the ice particles obtained by freezing the mist-like water droplets by the one type of prior art apparatus described above are mere ice particles, and have an entirely different quality from crystallized natural snow. Although such ice particles can be used for an artificial skiing area or for decoration, they cannot be used for studies and experiments involving natural snow.
The apparatus disclosed in the Japanese Patent Laid-Open Application and as described in connection with FIG. 4 can generate artificial snow which is equivalent to crystallized natural snow, but the shapes of the crystal structures of the resulting snow are diversified and, moreover, it is difficult to obtain a predetermined quantity of snow in conjunction with the quantity of snowfall. Accordingly, this prior art apparatus is subject to the problems that the shape of the snowflakes is not constant and at the time, the quantity of snowfall cannot be controlled arbitrarily.
Obtaining snow with a predetermined shape of the snowflakes from the artificial snow generating apparatus and the arbitrary control of the quantity of snow are indispensable conditions for carrying out studies and experiments to solve various problems caused by snow.
Accordingly, the development of an artificial snow generating apparatus which can generate a predetermined quantity of snow having flakes of a predetermined shape has been needed.